Armatix: We’ll Release iP1 .22 ‘Smart Gun’ Into U.S. Market Next Year

“German firearms manufacturer Armatix LLC is planning to release its second smart gun in the U.S. next year after sales of its first model — the .22 caliber iP1 — were quashed by pressure from some gun owners and gun rights advocates who saw it as a threat to Second Amendment freedoms,” computerworld.com reports. True story! And here’s why:

The New Jersey Childproof Handgun Law. The law mandates that the moment a “smart gun” is for available for sale anywhere in the U.S., New Jersey residents have three years to buy “dumb handguns” before they’re banned.

For some reason, no retailer wants to be “that guy” — the one that triggers the Garden State dumb gun ban. Something to do with a total boycott perhaps?

Anyway, notice the word “release” in the opening sentence. Not “sell.” Here’s Armatix’s new plan:

Prior to the release of the iP9, Armatix also plans to re-release its iP1 .22 caliber smart gun, though sales this time around will be focused on shooting ranges, where safety. The company plans to combine the iP1 with a new Target Response System it developed; that RFID-based system enables the gun to fire when it’s pointed at a target.

“There are 18,000 gun ranges in the U.S. You can imagine that’s going to keep us busy with our Target Response System. Retailers are interested in stocking it,” [Armatix CEO and president Wolfgang] Tweraser said.

I assume Wolfie means that U.S. retailers are interested in stocking the Target Response System, not the iP1. But maybe not. The computerworld.com article indicates that he has a complete lack of understanding of opposition to the Armatix gun.

Tweraser said the push back on the iP1 started because of the NRA.

This time around, Tweraser said he’s taking more time to properly educate sales staff, the public and lawmakers “that Armatix is not here to replace other guns.”

“When Tesla came on the market, I never heard them say, ‘Let’s replace the BMWs and Mercedes and only have electric cars,'” Tweraser said. “They offered a superior product that was more expensive and people said… ‘Yes, it’s more expensive, but I would like to have it.'”

Wrong. The NRA has publicly declared its support for “smart gun” development — while opposing “smart gun” mandates like New Jersey’s. And Armatix would replace other guns, at least in New Jersey, by law (a similar bill almost passed in Massachusetts).

Bottom line: Armatix’s failure in the U.S. market — past, present or future — isn’t about fear of foreign competition. And it isn’t about NRA intransigence. It’s about the protection of Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear the arms of their choosing. And the fact that the iP1 sucks.

I’m pretty sure they’re only pretending not to understand the opposition. It’s by all accounts an epically craptacular gun that doesn’t stand a chance on an open market, and they’re clearly banking on a government mandate to create a market for them by decree.

To hell with the New Jersey law. Let the manufacturers innovate. If they make something the public wants to buy, then the public will buy it.

And if poor New Jersey residents can’t buy anything else? Then get off your asses and throw the socialist nannies out on theirs, and repeal the law! Or move, and let the socialist nannies have it.

You can’t stop the signal. Innovations in “smart guns” are coming, one way or the other. The New Jersey law is not, and cannot, be an impetus to innovation. I refuse to be held hostage by some bit of legislative insanity passed by some socialists 2,000 miles away. I am not afraid of the New Jersey law, any more than I am afraid of the California “Microstamping” law — which has done far, far more damage to the right of residents to buy firearms than the New Jersey “smart gun” law ever has or ever will be able to.

Correction to the NJ law stated in the article: it specifies that only “dumb” handguns would be banned after the three year mark, not all “dumb” guns period. Still a terrible piece of legislative excrement regardless. I wish we got as many earthquakes as Cali, so North-eastern/North-central NJ and NYC could fall into the ocean.

I seem to recall a statement from the New Jersey Attorney General that the Armitix pistol didn’t qualify as a “smart gun” under the law.

“After careful consideration of the iP1’s design, we have determined that it does not satisfy the statutory definition because, as a matter of design, the pistol may be fired by a person who is not an authorized or recognized user.”

The smart gun development has been smothered in it’s cradle by the power of a single twisted socialist gargoyle in New Jersey. Due to her efforts US gun retailers and consumers will be extremely reluctant to ever support any company producing a smart gun. Even if the gargoyle were to back off and allow the law to be removed, who is to say that some other socialist couldn’t get a replacement law passed?

Nope, no smart gun for me! I would be as likely to buy one as donate to the Democrats!

Once again the smart gun is just a way to lock your gun so that only you can use it
Smart gun technology, when it finally does come, it’s going to be completely different
It will be something like a tracking point in every gun
You will make first-round hits on moving targets at any distance
If you want a gun only you can use lock it up and keep the key

Once again the smart gun is just a way to lock your gun so that only you can use it
Smart gun technology, when it finally does come, it’s going to be completely different
It will be something like a tracking point in every gun
You will make first-round hits on moving targets at any distance
you want a gun only you can use? lock it up and keep the key

This time around, Tweraser said he’s taking more time to properly educate sales staff, the public and lawmakers…

Armatix knows damn well that NJ passed a law mandating smart guns! Armatix doesn’t care about gun rights whatsoever! They care about exploiting the situation for money. The statements made by whatever the F his name is – is proof enough. Does anyone here think for one second that armatix didn’t know NJ mandated smart guns???? Seriously? It’s bullshit and armatix is in my sh!tlist now.

While they are technically a gun company, they are the worst gun control freaks ever. They can’t beat any competition in the free market so they seek to create a police state with disarmed citizens where they can supply the police because every other company was banned because of smart-gun laws and they are the only allowed supplier.
They are lobbying for more gun control in germany and releasing a shitton of fake studies that analyse that every bit of evil in the world is due to weapons out there not being their smart guns, only given out to the police while every other gun must be banned.

As a computer nerd I wouldn’t trust this pistol simply due to its reliance on short range radio signals to pair with a watch. Never mind any political nonsense halfway across the continent. Never mind mechanical unreliability. I have a smart watch now, a reasonably good one, and in the past I’ve used a step tracking wrist band. Simply keeping them paired with my phone is a real hassle. I basically have to wipe and reset my watch every few months. My son’s similar smart watch won’t even stay paired up longer than a few days. Sure, bluetooth and RFID are two different technologies. But from the NRA review it seems maybe they’re not so different after all.

That’s not even considering the matter of technological obsolescence, long term vendor support for the inevitable software updates, and watch battery life. All of which are ongoing problems with my otherwise wonderful watch. (Pebble got bought out by another company and promptly dropped any support for the existing customer base. Yippee skippy.) Make the authenticating token completely passive, RFID powered, not a wristwatch, and with a cold boot time measured in milliseconds… and I’d still be skeptical.

I sear to God these guys’ refrain is like some cheesy TV supervillian; “You may have bested me this time, but I’ll be back soon, and then I will finally have my revenge (and ram my crap gun product into some store front to screw over New Jerseyians even harder)!”

I predict a gun store owner trying to get some free press by offering to sell it, then being inundated with hate by potential customers that indicates a rapid bankruptcy will result, then some bullshit claims of death threats before giving up on the Armatix kiosk to keep the doors open (maybe).

“For some reason, no retailer wants to be “that guy” — the one that triggers the Garden State dumb gun ban. Something to do with a total boycott perhaps?”

Nope, that’s dead wrong and you know it. Every market survey to date has shown that MILLIONS of Americans would buy a smart gun. Even as a niche product, the market is huge. The reason the iP1 was pulled from shelves is that gun store owners received death threats from COWARDS in the supposedly-pro-gun camp who want to ban smart guns. These communists want to deny all Americans the right to buy whatever guns we want.

If you oppose the free market, you are a communist. If you oppose some gun being available on the free market, you are a gun-grabber. If you oppose the advancement of technology, you are a neo-Luddite and a technophobe, and you will soon be buried beneath the sands of time by people like me who don’t give a shit what you oppose.

Threatening to murder honest gun store owners because some idiots in New Jersey voted to revoke their own rights makes YOU PEOPLE the villains of this piece. This was an act of evil, and it makes me seriously question my commitment to defend YOUR freedoms. You seem intent on pushing all of us who support the free market — and oppose acts of TERRORISM — to the other side of this debate.

This article sugar-coats the acts of terrorism committed by smart-gun-grabbers, in an attempt to make your side appear civilized. What you geniuses don’t seem to understand is that only gun nuts read rags like this. THE REST OF THE WORLD reads regular news sources, and these news sources report what REALLY HAPPENED here! So you are only deluding yourselves.

I just hope you are happy when the millennials who will soon be running our government vote to make smart guns required nationwide, citing your childish tantrums as proof that gun owners are a violent and uncivilized horde who cannot be trusted with weapons. Maybe you can threaten to murder them too, further proving their point.

The question is not, “Are smart guns coming?” Spoiler alert: Yes, they are. The question is, can American gun owners be trusted with their weapons? Keep threatening to murder people you disagree with if the answer is “no”.

But the New Jersey Attorney General’s office said a while back that the Armitix pistol doesn’t meet the criteria to trigger the law. I recall that Armitix said they were developing a pistol to market to law enforcement.
Has anyone heard any updates on that? I can imagine what the rank and file officers would say.